Re: canon

Mark B. O'Brien (obrienmb@juno.com)
Mon, 10 Mar 1997 22:46:17 EST

Larry,

On Mon, 10 Mar 1997 00:15:33 -0700 (MST) Larry Swain <swainl@rocky.edu>
writes:
>This issue seems to come up frequently. Actually I think the majority
>of
>evidence suggests that most groups of Jews and Christians agreed on
>most
>of the canon-there are always minor differences just as there are in
>the
>modern period among various Christian groups.
>
>Here are a few common assumptions that seem to me to be part of the
>discussion that need to be done away with:
>
>1) That someone(s) decided the canon. Sorry folks, didn't happen,
>neither
>for the Hebrew Bible nor the Christian. Rather the content of the
>canon
>is always an organic, bottoms up, active thing, never a static, cut
>and
>dried issue.
[snip]

I'm not sure I follow you here... perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but
I wouldn't have thought that orthodox Christianity would be comfortable
with the notion that the canon of Scripture is still in flux. Although
all of the major orthodox traditions may differ slightly in what they
consider to be the canon of Scripture, within those traditions they *are*
certainly fixed ("cut and dried," if you will). Again, perhaps I'm not
fully understanding your point here, so I'd be happy for clarification.

Regards,

M.

-----
Mark O'Brien
Grad. Student, Dallas Theological Seminary
Adj. Prof., Dallas Christian College